Southland farmers are warning that an order to stop winter grazing comes at a massive cost.

Environment Southland issued the abatement notice to several farmers after deeming that the rules under the national environmental standards for freshwater were being broken.

This included red flags on critical source areas, or the breaking of slope rules.

Federated Farmers Winter Grazing Spokesperson Jason Herrick told Mike Hosking that it's all inconvenience and coming at a massive cost.

He says farmers have put mitigations and extra costs in place to meet expectations, and to be slapped with this as well is unfair and unjust.

Environment Southland says their message has been consistently clear about working with farmers to ensure winter grazing complies with the rules.

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